Sen. Joe Manchin implored President Biden Thursday to “come to the table” and negotiate with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on a compromise to raise the debt ceiling.
The centrist Democrat’s plea to Biden, 80, comes a day after the Republican-controlled House narrowly passed a McCarthy-led bill to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.
“The clock is ticking on this debt ceiling crisis and the American people will pay the economic price if President Biden continues to refuse to sit down and negotiate a commonsense compromise that would prevent a historic default,” Manchin (D-WV) said in a statement.
“Speaker McCarthy did his job and he passed a bill that would prevent default and finally begin to rein in federal spending. While I do not agree with everything proposed, it remains the only bill moving through Congress that would prevent default and that cannot be ignored,” he added.
McCarthy’s proposal to raise the debt ceiling would allow the federal government to borrow another $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024 – whichever milestone is reached first – in exchange for discretionary spending cuts for non-defense programs.
The legislation would also limit the growth of future expenditures to 1% per year for the next decade and eliminate Biden’s order to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for certain borrowers, as well as roll back portions of Democrats’ $739 billion government spending package implemented last year.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said the House bill is “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber, and the White House has also derided the legislation, vowing Biden will veto it.
“It has now been 85 days since the President sat down with the Speaker,” Manchin said. “Only the President can prevent this from becoming a full-blown domestic crisis. For the sake of our nation that we all serve, I urge the President to put politics and partisanship aside, come to the table and negotiate a real compromise that saves America from this impending economic catastrophe.”
Manchin’s statement came on the same day Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice filed to run for the US Senate in a bid to replace the vulnerable Democratic incumbent in 2024.
Polls show Justice has higher approval ratings among Mountain State Democrats than Manchin, who has not announced his 2024 plans and has said no decision will come until December.
“I am laser-focused on doing the job West Virginians elected me to do — lowering healthcare costs, protecting Social Security and Medicare, shoring up American energy security, and getting our fiscal house in order,” Manchin said in another statement Thursday. “But make no mistake, I will win any race I enter.”
Manchin, a former West Virginia governor, has represented the state in the Senate since 2010, when he won a special election to replace the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd.
